From: Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC <pmarc2008@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 2:17 PM
Subject: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch - News Updates 20.02.10
To: Dalits Media Watch <PMARC@dgroups.org>
Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 20.0210
Booked for beating up youths, cop hits them back with an FIR - Indian Express
Caste-bound tension continues in Kendrapara - Kalinga Times
Dalit students padlock school - My Republica. com
http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=15359
Quota for SCs/STs in outsourcing jobs too - The Hindu
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0
Police criticised for poor implementation of SC, ST Act - The Hindu
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0
Dalits oppose cow slaughter Bill - The Hindu
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0
What motivates Salil Shetty? - The Times Of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/people/What-motivates-Salil-Shetty/articleshow/5596177.cms
Anthropological convocation from Feb 21 - Central Cronicle
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/Central_Chronicle/400x60/0
Indian Express
Booked for beating up youths, cop hits them back with an FIR
A day after being booked for allegedly beating three youths inside the district court premises, Deputy Superintendent of Police Shushil Kumar, posted as Circle officer (CO) of Manjhanpur, Kaushambi, lodged an FIR under the SC/ST Act against the three youths on Thursday night.
Kumar had on February 17 reportedly beaten a local TV journalist and two other youths in full public view, after dragging them out of the district collectorate lock-up where they were lodged.
On the order of District Judge T M Khan, an FIR was lodged against the CO on the same day.
Irked over the officer's FIR against the youths, lawyers of the district court on Friday abstained from judicial work demanding suspension of the CO.
President of the lawyers association Ravi Prakash accused the CO of "misusing power", claiming that he wanted to pressurise the youths to withdraw the FIR against him.
Inspector General of Police Chandra Prakash, meanwhile, admitted that it appears to be a case of misuse of power and has ordered an inquiry into the role of the CO.
Kumar, however, claimed: "The three youths made castiest remarks when I reached the lock-up on Wednesday. I have lodged an FIR against them in this connection."
On February 17, Vinod Pandey (32), a reporter with a local channel surrendered before court after a non-bailable warrant was issued against him in a dowry case.
The court remanded him to 14 days' judicial custody and before being taken to jail, Pandey was kept in the lock-up inside the district court premises. Kumar later dragged Pandey out and allegedly beat him in full public view.
The CO also thrashed two other youths who were inside the lock-up in connection with other cases.
Kalinga Times
Caste-bound tension continues in Kendrapara
KalingaTimes Correspondent
Kendrapara, Feb. 19: A day after the bloody clash, gun-totting policemen hang around the remote Rankala village. The residents regardless of caste affiliation are in a state of panic. The ransacked houses in the village, that was witness to bloody caste-bound battle yesterday, remind one of the scenes of devastation of 1999 super-cyclone days.
At least 23 persons mostly dalit women were injured yesterday afternoon as armed upper caste groups had launched a murderous attack on their houses.
As upper caste groups resorted to dig earth from a government grazing land in close proximity to dalits' place of inhabitation, the dalits offered resistance and stopped the digging work. The upper caste who were lifting the earth for construction work in the local lord Hanumanjew temple were deeply enraged and attacked the other groups.
An armed mob comprising over 300 people from the group barged into dalits' settlement and had let loose vandalism spree. After beating up the families, they targeted their houses and caused damage to 33 houses and household articles. The incident occurred when the male members of the victimized families were away from their homes as most of them were daily wagers.
Three persons involved in yesterday's violent attack have been taken into custody. A platoon of armed police is camped in the troubled village as a precautionary measure. Situation is fast returning to normality in the affected village, said Kendrapara Superintendent of Police, Narasingha Bhol.
However the ground realities speak altogether different story. Tension has taken firm grip in the village with majority of upper caste male members have fled the village fearing arrest and retaliatory attack from the other group.
Deafening silence prevails the village that has about 600 population. The upper caste community comprising two-third of the population outnumbers the dalits.
Everybody in the village prefers to prefer to remain tightlipped and their reply to outsiders is mostly in monosyllables. It may take considerable time for the wound of caste divide to heal despite administrative effort to broker out an amicable settlement to the dispute.
My Republica. com
Dalit students padlock school
http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=15359
RUKUM, Feb. 19: Dalit students padlocked Tribhuvan Janata Higher Secondary School based in Musikot Khalanga of Rukum district for the indefinite time from Thursday citing the school administration failed to implement the agreement to provide Dalit students with scholarship for grade XI and XII as per earlier decision.
An all party meeting held in April 27, 2009, which included the school administration, dalit students and others, decided to provide scholarship to dalits for higher secondary level.
The students called school closure demanding the implementation of the past agreement.
The Hindu
Quota for SCs/STs in outsourcing jobs too
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0
VIZIANAGARAM: Director of National Commission for Scheduled Castes V. Elisha on Friday said that rule of reservation even in outsourcing jobs would be adopted and any anomalies taken place in this regard rectified.
After a closed door meeting with Collector G. Ram Narayana Reddy, Superintendent of Police Y. Gangadhar, Joint Collector P. Lakshmi Narasimham, Additional Joint collector M. Rama Rao and Assistant Superintendent of Police A. Ravi Krishna, Mr. Elisha in a brief chat with reporters said that during his two-day tour he had interacted with beneficiaries of social security schemes, visited SC colonies and paid special attention to their problems, particularly atrocities against them. Correspondent
The Hindu
Police criticised for poor implementation of SC, ST Act
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0
Staff Reporter
PUDUCHERRY: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Friday castigated the Police Department for poor implementation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 in the Union Territory, as none of the complaints filed by SC persons since 2005 has been registered under the Act.
After holding a State-level review meeting with Welfare Minister M. Kandasamy and senior officials including the Chief Secretary, vice-chairman of the commission N.M. Kamble told reporters that they were not very happy about the implementation of the Act in the Union Territory.
"The Police Department should be blamed for this. Complaints lodged by SC persons have not been registered properly. If registered, the cases have not been properly investigated or lack proper charge sheet. The court cannot do anything in such a situation. As a result, no person was convicted," he said.
Member of the Commission Mahendra Boddh gave details of cases filed by SC persons since 2005 in the Union Territory but said the First Information Reports were under the Protection of Civil Rights Act and not under the SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
There were 30 complaints lodged by SC persons in 2005, 14 in 2006, 25 in 2007, 27 in 2008 and 26 in 2009. "Complaints should be registered under this Act, investigation started immediately and be completed in 30 days," he said. The Chief Secretary has promised to take immediate measures regarding the implementation of the Act, Mr. Kamble said.
Referring to a rape case filed by a SC woman from Yanam, the Commission said that the case would be reopened and the victim given relief in the form of employment or financial assistance.
Citing statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau, the Commission said Puducherry ranked 20 in atrocities rate against SC.
Mr. Kamble said the Union Territory was doing well in the implementation of welfare schemes for the SC and the situation was not that bad here as in other big States.
The Commission found that there was no Chief Liaison Officer to serve as a link between the SC government employees and government. A committee to review the policies for SC community under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister was absent. Such a committee should be formed and a meeting should be held every six months," he said.
The Hindu
Dalits oppose cow slaughter Bill
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0
Staff Correspondent
| Say it is an attack on their culture |
HASSAN: Several Dalit organisations took out a rally here on Friday protesting against the Government's decision to introduce a revised Bill on the cow slaughter ban. They presented a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister through the Deputy Commissioner demanding that the move be dropped.
'Secular country'
The Dalita Sanghatanegala Samyukta Vedike stated in its memorandum that India was a secular country where people from all communities lived, following their own customs.
'Hindutva agenda'
But this Government was trying to bring in a revised form of The Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act, 1964, in pursuance of its Hindutva agenda.
The vedike said the enforcement of the Act would be an assault on their culture.
The federation feared that if the new Bill was introduced, then it would breed enmity between people of different communities.
The Times Of India
What motivates Salil Shetty?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/people/What-motivates-Salil-Shetty/articleshow/5596177.cms
ASHA RAI & JAYASHREE NANDI TIMES NEWS NETWORK ,
Feb 20, 2010, 12.00pm IST
Salil Shetty is the first Indian to head Amnesty International. He had no inkling he was going to do that when he was a child growing up in the quiet, leafy neighbourhoods of old Bangalore city. But even then Shetty identified himself with the underdog. Why else would he be helping out his father to type out his books on Dalit rights?
From those seemingly less complicated days, the 49- year-old Shetty has come a long way.He will officially join his new office in June. That sounds pretty simple. But the trajectory of his career was never quite arrow straight.Shetty,an IIM-Ahmedabad graduate (1983),actually started out with a stint at Wipro,which,he says,he enjoyed.But,as it turned out, not enough to sustain his interest for long.
His father,V T Rajashekhar,though not a Dalit himself,is a well-known Dalit leader and editor of the journal,Dalit Voice.What did he feel when his son decided to switch from the corporate sector to social advocacy? "My son can't sell soaps.I told him,you are my son,get into some real,serious business."
Shetty studied at Bangalore's St Joseph's Indian High School and later at St Joseph's College of Commerce - where he met his wife,Bina Rani.Says Shetty,"Both these institutions laid a very strong value foundation,just as my home environment did." Home certainly seems to have had a decisive influence on Shetty.His father,Rajashekhar,long ago had turned his back on his upper class roots to fight for the rights of the underprivileged.
Shetty's initial years at ActionAid were mostly spent with poor households in villages and slums,mostly low castes,Dalits,Adivasis and Muslims.As he says,there was no "better place than India to learn what underdevelopment is all about,and where the solutions lie."
Five years into his new career,Shetty felt the need to actually go and study development academically."My first degree was in accounting and then I had done my MBA.So off I went to the London School of Economics (LSE).The year there was brilliant,I felt like a blotting paper taking in everything,and for the first time I was actually studying what I really wanted to," Shetty says.He returned to India from LSE as head of ActionAid India and then moved to run ActionAid Kenya and discovered "another amazing experience of what poverty means in the African context."
From Kenya,he moved to London to head ActionAid globally.Shetty found himself leading 2,000 staff and partners in over 30 countries.While he found the challenge of transforming ActionAid into a leading policy advocacy organisation that is truly international "very satisfying," he jokes that the process "turned all my hair grey."
Shetty admits that moving to United Nations from ActionAid wasn't an easy decision to make."I agonised a great deal before making the move.I was very nervous about working in an intergovernmental context and the bureaucracy that might weigh me down.But,I was convinced that the UN presented arguably the most powerful platform from which one could convene a very wide range of constituencies and the Millennium Development Goals offered a perfect entry point and rallying point to campaign against the causes of poverty.So,it was,in fact,quite a seamless move in many respects."
Having been with the United Nations for six years as director of its Millennium Campaign,he says,he's "very impressed at how the senior leadership of the UN was able to see that a citizens' campaign against poverty can add real value and build popular pressure on elected leaders to deliver on their development promises."
Shetty explains away his regular search of new challenges as part of a personal philosophy."I am a strong believer in change;those in leadership roles should not hang on to their jobs.After every 5 years or so there should be an infusion of new leadership and ideas."
An atheist like his father,Shetty had a very simple wedding in the house with the family asking the Hindu priests for the most inauspicious time to solemnise the marriage."We had asked for Rahu Kala because we wanted to prove that there is no such thing as an auspicious time for doing something,as orthodox Hindus think.So,we had a very small ceremony at home," says Rajashekhar about Shetty and Bina's wedding.The couple has two kids.Daughter Tashi's just completed her studies at Cambridge University,while son Tahir is a student at the University of York.
Shetty says he is much indebted to the women in his life." All the women in my immediate family starting with my mother have always been a source of great inspiration to me. Leaves me baffled as to why they have allowed men to rule the world and make such a mess of it!"
Fixing some of that mess will be part of Shetty's job at Amnesty.
Central Cronicle
Anthropological convocation from Feb 21
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/Central_Chronicle/400x60/0
By Our Staff Reporter
Bhopal, Feb 17:
During the British rule and after independence the government and non-government agencies conducted special development programmes for the uplift of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and dalits but without desired results. In fact these developmental works were against their interests and damaged their interests rather than giving benefit. Their traditional profession is being extinct slowly today. Moreover, these sections of the society were suffering from displacement due to development works and rehabilitating works were insufficient.
The real meaning of development, its effect on environment etc and role of Indira Gandhi National Museum of Mankind on these burning issues will be discussed at a three-day Anthropologist convention to be held from February 21. This third convocation is being organised by Indian National Confederation and Academy of Anthropologist. Around 300 Anthropologists from throughout the country would attend. Central subject of the convocation would be 'State, Development and Agency'. During these days different cultural activities would also be held.
--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.
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